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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

NASA release

NASA Plays Audio "Time Capsule" of Historic Apollo 11 Mission

NASA will provide a unique audio "time capsule" in observance of the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon. Audio from the entire Apollo 11 mission will be replayed and streamed on the Internet at exactly the same time and date it was broadcast in 1969.

The audio retrospective will begin at 6:32 a.m. CDT Thursday, July 16, two hours before the spacecraft launched. The audio will continue through splashdown of the mission at 11:51 a.m. CDT Friday, July 24, and recovery of the crew shortly afterward. The Web stream will feature the communications between the astronauts and ground teams, and commentary from Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Listening to the Apollo 11 mission audio in real time has been a real treat for me. I wonder if NASA might do the same for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 13 next year. That would be a real interesting one to listen to as well.

Colin Anderton

For the first time since the Apollo 11 flight, I've had a real sense of travelling back in time. I've been following all the major parts of the mission - including getting up at 3 in the morning to listen to the EVA.

NASA is to be commended for doing this. Does anyone know the status of the official NASA sound tapes for other Mercury/Gemini/Apollo flights? I hope they are as high quality as these Apollo 11 tapes!

I really have the feeling these three men will be home tomorrow!

Michael Davis

This "real time" audio has probably been the best part of the Apollo 11 anniversary for me. I was only nine at the time of the landing, and unfortunately I missed a couple of key parts of the mission due to the sometimes unfocused immaturity that came with that age.

For instance, I've always felt guilty about stepping outside to play a game of catch with a neighbor during the critical last minutes of the landing. The playback gave me the ability to correct for that mistake 40 years later. I feel much better now.

This is one of NASA's best PR efforts in years. This should be a continuous program.

alanh_7

I would like to see NASA do the same thing for the Apollo 12 mission onwords. I have also enjoyed listening in on the Apollo 11 broadcast. As a 'time capsule' operating in real time I had the feeling the landing was on going rather than 40 years ago. Great idea.

Colin Anderton

I'm just curious about one thing: Where was Jack Riley's commentary on yesterday's splashdown?

But I would also say this has been the best part of the anniversary for me.

I watched some of the ITN coverage here in Britain, attempting to re-create the mission as it was reported at the time. They failed dismally! For example, once again they showed the lunar landing along with a very tightly-edited version of the audio.

This gave the impression of a hurried - almost panicky - feel to the landing. It just didn't feel like that as we watched in 1969. The true atmosphere was one of fairly quiet but extreme tension.

Only NASA's unedited tape gives this original "feel" to it.

I can't praise NASA enough for re-running these tapes. They were out of this world!

Pat Gleeson

I wonder how these recordings will be archived for future use? I noticed that I was able to hear for the first time the audio from shortly after lunar orbit from the ascent to TPI. The Apollo 11 PAO audio stream at Live 365.com is excellent, but does have some gaps such as this.

The NASA link to the time capsule has been removed.

Robert Pearlman

The audio time capsule was created using tapes retrieved from the National Archives. NASA digitized the audio from these recordings and when the project was done, returned to the Archives a digital copy (as I assume retained their own).

Jay Chladek

Too bad I missed this. But, if they were to do it for other missions up to Apollo 16, do you think they would have the unedited orange juice audio "debrief" in it?